MIDDLETOWN – The Middletown Township Committee remains all-Republican in 2020 after two incumbents won reelection for three-year terms.
Committeemen Kevin Settembrino and Rick Hibell were sworn in to their new terms on the governing body at the Sunday, Jan. 5 meeting. They defeated Democrats Jeana Sager and Sean Byrnes following drama around a leaked video of Sager making controversial comments about police, alleging “a lot of police are criminals.”
“Let me say this loud and let me say this clear – our officers are of the finest, most professional and honorable anywhere in the state of New Jersey. And they will forever have the support of the five of us sitting up here,” said Mayor Tony Perry at the Jan. 5 meeting.
Perry was renamed mayor in 2020 after a nomination led by Tony Fiore. He said Perry “has done just such a tremendous job and really represents this municipality at the highest level that he possibly can.”
Perry said he was “incredibly grateful” to have been nominated as mayor again. “It truly has been the greatest honor to serve as mayor over these last 12 months and I look forward to all that 2020 has to bring.”
Fiore was reappointed as deputy mayor this year and served in that role last year as well. He gave thanks to his family, colleagues, town volunteers and administration.
A portion of the meeting was spent reviewing what 2019 looked like for Middletown. It was a year the township “dramatically increased its recycling efforts,” said Perry. For example, the town established a recycling program to make residents more aware of recycling rules; partnered with Saker ShopRite to collect and repurpose single-use plastic bags; and teamed up with Second Chance Toys to redirect gently used plastic toys from the town landfill to underprivileged children instead.
Most recently, Middletown said it became the first town in the state of New Jersey to purchase a Styrofoam recycling machine using grant funding. With it the town can “take a product that was once thought of as a pollutant and turn it into a renewable product,” said Perry. “Because of these efforts, Middletown received silver certification from Sustainable NJ, which less than 10 percent of New Jersey’s municipalities have achieved.”
It was also the year the township committee broke ground on a new $56 million energy-efficient municipal complex that will serve as a central hub for services currently located in seven different facilities. According to Perry, the plans are being finalized. Meanwhile, construction work at Croydon Hall in the Leonardo section has been completed to house temporary office space for employees of the Johnson Gill Annex, located at 1 Kings Highway. “Residents will soon see our new building begin to take shape,” said Perry.
The plan is to have the 72,000-square-foot building opened in the summer of 2021. The existing town hall was built in 1960 when the township’s population was 39,000. Now Middletown boasts 68,000 people, according to the township administrator.
